Australia, 1 December 2021 | tennis.com.au

The summer of tennis officially launches today, with AusPlay data reporting a record 1,529,000 Aussies, including 1,227,800 adults and 301,200 children, hitting the courts across the country throughout the latest reporting period*.

The fastest growing sport across all ages, tennis out-performed 15 other activities and sports, including AFL, basketball and soccer, with a 37 per cent increase in adult participation alongside a 29 per cent increase in children picking up a racquet.

Coinciding with the launch of the 2022 Summer Competitive Play Calendar, the country’s 1.5 million players will benefit from a new-look summer of tennis complete with exciting opportunities for players to learn, play and compete.

> To learn more about the new Competitive Play Framework head to tennis.com.au/competitiveplay

“The latest AusPlay data provides us with a really strong indication as to the health of Aussie tennis, giving us the perfect platform to launch what promises to be an exciting summer of tennis for grassroots participation,” said Tennis Australia Chief Tennis Officer Tom Larner.

“We are committed to improving the delivery of our leading programs, support for coaches, competitive play and places to play and a major part of this is the Australian Competitive Play Framework, which forms the way forward for continued positive growth across the sport.

“Our commitment to attracting and retaining players of all abilities, while continuing to develop future champions has led to the development of an aspirational player pathway which targets players along the entire player journey from exploring tennis at a local level to excelling on the international circuit.

“Delivering on player-centric pathways and level-based competitive opportunities, the competitive playing calendar will see the adoption of the UTR system across all events from 1 January 2022.

> FIND OUT: What is your UTR Rating?

“And with more than 75 per cent of the Australian population now with access to online court bookings through play.tennis.com.au, we’re gearing up for an exciting summer of tennis with more people, playing more tennis, more of the time.”

Ensuring the overall health of tennis across all functions of the sport, Tennis Australia continues work on an extensive coach review process, alongside implementing support for the good governance of clubs with the launch of the innovative new Health Indicator of Tennis (HIT) tool.

Coach review: Launched in May 2021, the Coach Review was established to identify ways to better support, attract and develop coaches across Australia.

HIT tool for clubs: The Health Indicator of Tennis (HIT) tool assist clubs in turning insights into actions to ensure good governance across all club functions including finance, facilities, participation and child safeguarding protocols.

> To get involved and find out more about court hire, ANZ Tennis Hot Shots, Cardio Tennis, coaching and more, head to play.tennis.com.au

*AusPlay is a large scale national population tracking survey funded and led by Sport Australia. AusPlay data included is from the most recent release for the 12 months ending June 2021.

**Survey conducted by Pureprofile in August 2021.